They are. Even if they go down to 1 million subs, that is still 15 million dollars a month. Pretty good for a MMO.

Actually Blizzard reported net losses. Just saying. They are pouring a great many resources into Titan, Diablo 3 and Heart of the Swarm which aren't making any money in development. Also do not forget the gargantuan cost of bandwidth to support 10 million players. That bandwidth isn't free or even close to it.

Summation: It is all irrelevant for the most part. Blizzard, financially, is in great shape, I'd wager.

I tried to read most the posts, made it through about the first 3 pages and got a raging headache. I was just curious if any of the people predicting the fall of WoW or Blizzard have actually taken the time to read the news over the past 6 months. It's not a wonder (to the informed) that the subscription rate in the middle east has fallen so drastically recently, given the horrific earthquake that rocked Japan, followed by the terrible flooding still being cleaned up in Thailand.

Before you all jump to conclusions about the end of WoW as we know it, or Blizzard, Inc. going belly up, maybe you could log out of the game, and check up on the Current Events of the World.

I tried to read most the posts, made it through about the first 3 pages and got a raging headache. I was just curious if any of the people predicting the fall of WoW or Blizzard have actually taken the time to read the news over the past 6 months. It's not a wonder (to the informed) that the subscription rate in the middle east has fallen so drastically recently, given the horrific earthquake that rocked Japan, followed by the terrible flooding still being cleaned up in Thailand.

Before you all jump to conclusions about the end of WoW as we know it, or Blizzard, Inc. going belly up, maybe you could log out of the game, and check up on the Current Events of the World.

Peace,
Kir

Seriously? First people were blaming players being suddenly afflicted with "boredom" since Cata's launch... then others are claming that it's a down economy that's been afflicting subscriptions (dispite WoW's original numbers in Vanilla/BC SOARING due to resession and players wanting escapism!)

...and now since those two were debunked... you're trying to play the Natural Disaster card?

Seriously!?

"Tell them only that the Lich King is dead... and that World of Warcraft... died with him..."

Originally Posted by BenBos

That's the ONLY reason you would post 9600 posts over 3 years: a mission of hate.

Tbh considering they said there were mostly Chinese people cancelling subs I would imagine its a response to the announcement of Pandas. Pandas are the national icon of China, and yet in wow they often wear Japanese armor, which would be considered as highly offensive as a video of a man in a turban shitting on the american flag.

Tbh considering they said there were mostly Chinese people cancelling subs I would imagine its a response to the announcement of Pandas. Pandas are the national icon of China, and yet in wow they often wear Japanese armor, which would be considered as highly offensive as a video of a man in a turban shitting on the american flag.

ugh...

Should I even? Are you even going to listen? Really...

Fine...I'll try.

ONLY the first Pandaren (Chen in WCIII) had Japanese armor. China refused it - then Blizzard changed him to have Chinese outfit and China was fine with it. Since then, there hasn't been a SINGLE instance of Pandaren in game until now. and in this game - it's ALL chinese, NOT japanese.

Secondly, and more importantly, Q3 covers June-August... MoP wasn't unveiled until late September.

"Tell them only that the Lich King is dead... and that World of Warcraft... died with him..."

Originally Posted by BenBos

That's the ONLY reason you would post 9600 posts over 3 years: a mission of hate.

Seriously? First people were blaming players being suddenly afflicted with "boredom" since Cata's launch... then others are claming that it's a down economy that's been afflicting subscriptions (dispite WoW's original numbers in Vanilla/BC SOARING due to resession and players wanting escapism!)

...and now since those two were debunked... you're trying to play the Natural Disaster card?

Seriously!?

its no one factor obviously, but that certainly could have had an impact.

ONLY the first Pandaren (Chen in WCIII) had Japanese armor. China refused it - then Blizzard changed him to have Chinese outfit and China was fine with it. Since then, there hasn't been a SINGLE instance of Pandaren in game until now. and in this game - it's ALL chinese, NOT japanese.

Secondly, and more importantly, Q3 covers June-August... MoP wasn't unveiled until late September.

Before correcting anyone I'd suggest you get your facts straight.

Q3 (calendar): July 1st through September 30th
Q3 (fiscal): April 1st through June 30th
Q4 (fiscal): July 1st through September 30th
MoP was announced/unveiled late October

yes they are, for the people whose most valuable resource is not money, but time

How? Gw2 isn't designed to consume your time, it's designed to be fun, it's also being designed so that you can put it down for a while, days, weeks, months, and be able to come back and be able to experience a bunch of new things and not be left in the dust, so no, it's not really fighting for your time.

Originally Posted by draykorinee

Youre in the mmo forums and you find mmos boring, Im heading on over to the twilight forums to add my unecessary and shallow 2 cents.

ONLY the first Pandaren (Chen in WCIII) had Japanese armor. China refused it - then Blizzard changed him to have Chinese outfit and China was fine with it. Since then, there hasn't been a SINGLE instance of Pandaren in game until now. and in this game - it's ALL chinese, NOT japanese.

that kinda lends credit to the 'kungfu panda' theory then, eh ?

but in all seriousness, am i the only one that sees the possibility for MoP to be the first expansion NOT to see a 'subscription bump' ?

i'm kinda ok with letting my sub trickle by so i can see the 'final' patch and see how poorly LFR delivers... but i'm not about to drop $40 AND sub fees to get another expansion i clear thru in 2 days then wonder what i'm doing in a week and abandon my favorite character for the remainder of the expansion.

For me the game has lost that epic feel, i have played from the start and i did sign up for another year because I do like the game for the way it works, however it doesn't feel epic and its boring now.

I find i am doing my arena games for the week on 2 toons and maybe a FL run and that's about it. running za/zg on a number of toons is just boring as hell (I have 8 lvl 85s) and i cant stand it anymore. I think making ZA/ZG the only instances to do for the points was a mistake, you are locked in doing 2 instances over and over again

Class balance changes are going to be long and a wash. As are quests leading up to opening of raids and such.

Originally Posted by Mynsc

P.S. Did Trion ever add the open-world RvR zone (related to Scion I believe) that they hyped into oblivion before launch? It was the one feature that lured me in to try RIFT... boy was I a fool for believing them.

Not related to scion, but they have revamped world pvp quite a bit. They introduced an important pvp rep for those that participate in world pvp with actually good rewards. And they introduced pvp rifts.

It's the only MMO this side of Warhammer that you'll actually find world pvp.

Rift has really been adding stuff non stop to get people out into the world rather than sitting in cap cities spamming trade.

but in all seriousness, am i the only one that sees the possibility for MoP to be the first expansion NOT to see a 'subscription bump' ?

i'm kinda ok with letting my sub trickle by so i can see the 'final' patch and see how poorly LFR delivers... but i'm not about to drop $40 AND sub fees to get another expansion i clear thru in 2 days then wonder what i'm doing in a week and abandon my favorite character for the remainder of the expansion.

Hey man... I actually agree that they got their visual queue/style from Kung-Fu Panda! :P From the company who ripped of Rambo, CSI and Raiders of the lost arc for entire zone-wide storylines, are COMPLETELY ripping off Pokemon (not just taking the pet combat system... but literally stealing the game's core engine design), why wouln't I suspect they took visual queues from Kung Fu Panda?

And it's arguable that it's actually CATA that was the first expansion to not see a subscription bump. Wrath hit 12 million a couple months BEFORE Cata hit... that was the cap. Cata has been nothing but downhill sales since launch after that initial spike of playing.

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 03:45 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Aristeia

How would player housing be that exciting? x.x

The same way fishing is exciting to me! ^_^

I'll admit I'm a bit of a strange guy. I loved player housing in UO! I opened up a blacksmith/cooking shop and just had a blast interacting with and helping CREATE a community! ^_^

I wanted to do the same thing in WoW... but alas - Blizzard proved to me they didn't share the same concept of "community" that I do. =/

"Tell them only that the Lich King is dead... and that World of Warcraft... died with him..."

Originally Posted by BenBos

That's the ONLY reason you would post 9600 posts over 3 years: a mission of hate.

but in all seriousness, am i the only one that sees the possibility for MoP to be the first expansion NOT to see a 'subscription bump' ?

i'm kinda ok with letting my sub trickle by so i can see the 'final' patch and see how poorly LFR delivers... but i'm not about to drop $40 AND sub fees to get another expansion i clear thru in 2 days then wonder what i'm doing in a week and abandon my favorite character for the remainder of the expansion.

I very much agree with this. I don't care how cool the expansion looks, if it's only going to give a week or two of actual compelling gameplay I'm not interested. I've leveled enough alts because there just wasn't anything else I wanted to accomplish to last me a lifetime. And I sure as Hell am not interested in anymore "railroad" quest zones.

I'd really like to get my Special Snowflake Feat of Strength now. Just because I'm special. - Scummer

Actually Blizzard reported net losses. Just saying. They are pouring a great many resources into Titan, Diablo 3 and Heart of the Swarm which aren't making any money in development. Also do not forget the gargantuan cost of bandwidth to support 10 million players. That bandwidth isn't free or even close to it.

Summation: It is all irrelevant for the most part. Blizzard, financially, is in great shape, I'd wager.

Actually the cost of bandwidth is much smaller than you think such that they will never have to worry about it.

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 04:54 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Kireon

I tried to read most the posts, made it through about the first 3 pages and got a raging headache. I was just curious if any of the people predicting the fall of WoW or Blizzard have actually taken the time to read the news over the past 6 months. It's not a wonder (to the informed) that the subscription rate in the middle east has fallen so drastically recently, given the horrific earthquake that rocked Japan, followed by the terrible flooding still being cleaned up in Thailand.

Before you all jump to conclusions about the end of WoW as we know it, or Blizzard, Inc. going belly up, maybe you could log out of the game, and check up on the Current Events of the World.

Peace,
Kir

There are a lot of reasons why WoW is losing subscribers. A lot are arguing it's the state of the world that is causing the loss of subscribers. Some say its the game.

To myself and others that hate this game with passion, we just want it to die.

I am KickButtMario. I kick butt because I am Mario. The coolest, longest, living, protagonist out there in the video game industry.

The problem is that as said, most of the loss of subs came from China. But let's also realize, Cata was released in China at the start of the new quarter. Thus, as many people had said that China would rebound the subs with people playing Cata, but the reverse is true. They have had fresh content and are now where the rest of the world is in terms of expansions, they have Firelands, and in those 3 months they've had a constant stream of "new" content and still they lost subs.

So can we skip with point where people don't blame Cata as the problem when it seems pretty clear that with China losing subs at the same rate the rest of the world is that Cata is the problem.

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 06:44 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Kickbuttmario

Actually the cost of bandwidth is much smaller than you think such that they will never have to worry about it.

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 04:54 AM ----------

There are a lot of reasons why WoW is losing subscribers. A lot are arguing it's the state of the world that is causing the loss of subscribers. Some say its the game.

To myself and others that hate this game with passion, we just want it to die.

The cost of bandwidth, the cost of the servers, etc... is the single highest expense WoW has. The cost is way beyond what most people think it is.

The problem is that as said, most of the loss of subs came from China. But let's also realize, Cata was released in China at the start of the new quarter. Thus, as many people had said that China would rebound the subs with people playing Cata, but the reverse is true. They have had fresh content and are now where the rest of the world is in terms of expansions, they have Firelands, and in those 3 months they've had a constant stream of "new" content and still they lost subs.

So can we skip with point where people don't blame Cata as the problem when it seems pretty clear that with China losing subs at the same rate the rest of the world is that Cata is the problem.

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 06:44 AM ----------

The cost of bandwidth, the cost of the servers, etc... is the single highest expense WoW has. The cost is way beyond what most people think it is.

There was some data posted a while back from Activision's last earnings reports where they listed all their expenses, and server costs were so small they weren't even on the list, they were in a little asterisk below the real list.